Secretary: More money needed to keep seniors in their homes

August 14, 2009|By VICKI ROCK, Daily American Staff Writer

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Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging John Michael Hall on Friday told Somerset County senior citizens that he is trying to make sure that people will now, and in the future, have the services they need to live at home instead of going into a nursing home.

He is concerned about possible cuts for services in the state budget.

“People’s health problems don’t go away,” he said. “If we don’t serve people in the programs that allow them to stay in their homes, the costs show up in either nursing homes or hospitals. It costs three times as much for people to be in nursing homes than in their own homes.”

Hall was in Somerset to tour the Area Agency on Aging and to answer questions from the staff and the public. His biggest goal is to make Pennsylvania the best place in the nation to grow old.

In an interview prior to his public meeting, Hall said that Penn State University last year surveyed about 3,000 people in Pennsylvania. They were asked where they wanted to be if they needed long-term care. Ninety-two percent said they wanted to stay in their own homes.

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“The irony is, we invested the vast majority of money in nursing homes and under-funded home-based services,” he said. “Ninety percent of people want to remain at home and 90 percent of the money goes to institutions. That is just wrong. I’m not anti-nursing homes: People may get to the point where they need more care or their kids live states away and can’t help them. People want to have a say over where they get care.”

If insufficient money goes to agencies that provide services to people allowing them to stay home, then their decision is forced, agency Administrator Arthur DiLoreto said. It doesn’t allow people to evaluate their options because the conclusion has already been reached.

“If we don’t adequately fund services, then people’s conditions deteriorate and they are forced to make the decision to go into nursing homes,” DiLoreto said.

Hall told the senior citizens that the Department of Aging is trying to get the Department of Transportation to allow county transportation system buses to cross county lines when people need to go to another county for medical appointments.

“Our county lines should not be like the Berlin Wall,” he said.

One woman questioned why there are no buses that run late in the day. County Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes said the buses that ran longer were commercial bus lines that haven’t been in Somerset County in many years. The state, in partnership with the counties, is looking at ways to improve transportation systems, she said. A report was sent to the governor in July.

A woman attending the event asked Hall why the price of meals at the senior centers was raised from $2 to $3. There are people who no longer come because of the cost, she said.

Hall replied that 95 percent of the lottery revenue goes for senior citizens programs, but the lottery income isn’t infinitely expandable. The list of senior citizens programs that receive lottery money goes on for pages.

“We all try to make a finite amount of money go as far as it can,” he said.

It was the secretary’s first visit to the Area Agency on Aging of Somerset County. He was appointed secretary in October 2008. Prior to that, he was joint deputy secretary of the Office of Long Term Living.

He was impressed that the agency building was tailor-made to meet the needs of the county. He also liked visiting the nutrition department. Somerset County is one of only two counties in Pennsylvania (Dauphin County is the other) where the staff makes the meals that are served in the centers and delivered to homes. In other counties, the work is contracted to food service companies.